Science on stage

For Mário Montenegro theatre runs in his veins and science is in the background. He has a degree in electronics and telecommunications engineering but he pursued his passion, the theatre. Mário created the theatre company MARIONET in 2000. He is its artistic director, artist, screenwriter, scenic designer, and producer. With pieces such as ‘Revolução dos Corpos Celestes’, ‘O Nariz’, ‘LED – viagem ao interior de um computador’ he immersed into arts and science cross-sections.

Science and theatre have been connected for many years. Why is it different now and what are the main differences?

One startling difference is the steep increase of science plays during the last two decades, and this singularity deserved a particular attention from the literary and artistic worlds along with the possibility of a new theatre subgenre.
The reason for this strong approach between theatre and science may be due to several reasons from both sides, namely: a quest by playwrights and directors for new metaphors and myths in science; the search for new fields to explore in theatre, not only regarding the pertinence and actuality of some scientific themes (like, for instance, genetics, particle physics, astronomy) with practical relevance to society, but also as means to diversify the financial supports; a strong interest and commitment of the scientific institutions to communicate their work to the public and to diminish the gap between science and society, regarding theatre as one possible approach to do that; one can also refer the increasing interest from the educational community to explore drama as a means of transmitting knowledge, namely scientific one. And last, but not the least, certainly connected with the effort of communicating science, a wider awareness and comprehension of scientific issues and terms by the public, allowing them a deeper experience and pleasure when attending science plays.

MARIONET has successfully produced 5 science and theatre plays in the past 8 years. Do you believe this is a growing field in Portugal?

Definitely. In Portugal there’s what I would call a natural theatrical activity of producing recent successful science plays from foreigner authors, like for instance Copenhagen, by Michael Frayn, Proof, by David Auburn, Oxygen, by Carl Djerassi, or After Darwin, by Timberlake Wertenbaker. Along with this activity, which is a reflection of the foreigner investment in science plays and will follow a natural steady progression, there’s an alternative approach of developing original dramatic texts and productions based upon scientific themes. It’s this approach MARIONET’s been developing in its science theatre work in a systematic way, which makes it, eventually, a singular case in this country. This field of developing completely original productions in science theatre might still experience a strong increase in Portugal. However, this potential increase is dependent of specific financial support to this area of artistic development, as we can see, for example, happening in the U.S., where the Alfred Sloan foundation supports the writing of original science plays, the production of such plays, and also supports the organization of an annual theatre festival with science for theme.

Do we want something similar in Portugal? Yes, please.

What is the difference between science and theatre and science in theatre?

I have a slight difficulty when referring to this theatrical subgenre which is directly connected with my difficulty in establishing its limits. The scientific content of a given play may have different “flavours” and the play itself may assume different forms. I would identify those flavours in the following manner: > one or more of the characters of the play are scientists; > the central issue of the play is a scientific problem (and the corresponding search for a solution);
> the central issue of the play is science as an institution and its ways of functioning;
> the central issue of the play is not a scientific one, but science is present through examples, metaphors or events throughout the play;
> different combinations of the above.
There’s a very strict definition advanced by the chemist and writer Carl Djerassi, who defined a small pack of plays he wrote which deal with scientists and their work as “science-in-theatre”. So, in his opinion, plays which deal with scientists and their restrict world may be catalogued in this way.
Apart from the plays with this specific scientific content, there is a vast number of them which use, in one way or another, science as a theme, and could still be included in a science theatre subgenre. So, a wider definition of what is already called as science theatre or science plays, seems to me pertinent to encompass the diversity of productions in the last two decades which bring science to the stage.
In Portuguese language it’s common to use, for sake of simplicity, the term “teatro científico” (which we could translate as “scientific theatre”) when referring to this kind of plays. In my opinion, this expression is mischievous for it attributes to theatre an intrinsic characteristic of science - that of being scientific. And theatre, no matter how much science a particular play might include, will never be scientific, that’s a fundamental difference between science and theatre. And that’s why, when attending to a science play, you’ll never see a prologue stating “We swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me Science”.